HENRI-MAURICE LANDWORTH

HENRI-MAURICE LANDWORTH (April 1, 1886-September 1, 1940)

            The adopted name of Moyshe-Khayim Landvirt, he was born in Andrychów (Andrichau), Galicia.  He studied in religious elementary school, graduating from a public school and thereafter from the senior technical school in Vienna.  From 1904 he was studying painting and medicine in Paris.  In 1909 he made his way to Canada and a year later to the United States, where he established the periodical Der sotsyaler krieg (The social war), and he later contributed to a number of other periodicals.  In 1913 he published in Unzer gezung (Our health) his “Ershte yidishe stenografye” (First Yiddish shorthand).  He wrote about Yiddish theater and from time to time also gave talks on the same topic.  In 1915 he published in Chicago his four-act play Ideal un layden (Ideal and suffering), and in 1916 he wrote in English his one-act play A Plea for Peace which was staged.  That same year he wrote in Yiddish an opera, “Der letste kamf” (The last fight), and in 1929 published in English a book of poems on Jewish topics.  He practiced as a medical doctor in San Francisco, where he died.

Source: Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 2 (New York, 1934).

Yankev Kohen